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Friday, March 19, 2010

The CMSB has had a series of critics over the last 2 weeks over our various reports of the potential move of the Portland Pirates to the Albany Times Union Center. Most recently, the Albany Times Union hockey writer Pete Dougherty took us to task for reporting that the Pirates had an "agreement in principal" to move to Albany. He called our report "flat out wrong".

What you will see here next are items reported by us and verified by various people in other media reports.

Original Story - The CMSB reported the Portland Pirates had reached "an agreement in principal" with The Albany Times Union Center "if the i's are dotted and the t's get crossed", a formal announcement could be made by the end of this week or next".This quote is from the WCSH Channel 6 web post that quoted Albany Times Union Center General Manager Bob Belber, "Belber says he agreed to all of the Pirates demands and handed Petrovek a contract to sign. But in the end he says it was clear Petrovek was using the negotiations with Albany to get a better deal in Portland." Here is the audio of that exchange, WCSH Reporter Chris Rose reporting.

Owner Brian Petrovek on with Jeff Schools from The CMSB and Joe Palmeiri from The Morning Jab on 96.3 The Big Jab Thursday Morning. Brian Petrovek stated unequivocally "I had to complete the process of a negotiation in order to figure out and find out what was really there for us"

These facts are verified by the people actually involved in the negotiations. Please know that while we are an entity born out of being fans of sports and the sports media connection, we are 100% committed to following time honored traditions of the written media. Using "unnamed" sources, while in some circles is not allowed, it has become a regular way from media to get stories. We can also tell you with 100% of certainty that at the time of each report, we verified the story with MULTIPLE sources.

In the end did we live up to the headline "SOURCES: Pirates have a deal in principal with Times Union Center"? Duhaime.org is a legal site that has acclaim all over the net as a great place to get legal questions and definitions boiled down to understandable term.

Mr. Dougherty seems to be distancing himself from our reports, even though on March 2nd he said "At worst the (CMSB) report was premature". He also stated later that same day that the Pirates had legitimate interest in Albany. Mr. Dougherty stated in response to a commenter, and I quote:

I can assure you that no one is playing games here. Portland is serious in its interest in Albany, and I don’t believe the building here is being used as leverage against the Cumberland County Civic Center.

We here find it laughable someone would call our reporting "flat out wrong" when it's been verified by many involved in the negotiations as "dead-on", and to be told we're wrong when comparing scorecards is rather comical. This is our very last word on the subject.

Editor Matt Boutwell and Associate Editor Jeff Schools both contributed to this report

This is a text book case of main-stream media blaming the blogosphere when they are getting heat from their readership. The original headline stated "Pirates and ATU Have Deal in Principal". They had a deal, Petrovek just took that deal and used it to negotiate w/ the CCCC (Belber and Petrovek even confirmed it). For someone like Dougherty, who ironically enough works for a paper whose name is on the front of the Times Union center (Yeah no conflict of interest there, huh?), to do a 180 degree turn when all the evidence points to this story being right is just horrid. For the other lemmings who keep commenting here and on the Times-Union website, it's too bad you can't figure out that the sandwich you're eating isn't tuna fish, it's a pile of shit. Keep believing the crap the print media shoves in your face. It's good there are people like Matt and Jeff who continue to try and get the real story out, in spite of the handful of morons out there who want to discredit everything they've done. Maybe next week you guys should post a report on the sky being blue, these morons can disagree with that, too. Keep up the great work guys, love your show, love your local take on everything, and love the fact both of you are from the area and have a vested interest in what goes on here.

"Bully for you?" You want a spot of tea with that, old chap? They posted factual evidence from the 2 negotiators that supports their story, and has from the entire time line. It sounds to me like someone has an axe to grind and they are letting that get in the way of the facts.

Thank god the conscious of media has commented and chipped in his two cents. The fact of the matter is Brian Petrovek left Albany with a deal in hand, which Albany felt was a deal in principal. 2 days later, we reported the Pirates had taken that offer back to the CCCC trustees. I'm damn proud of the reporting that went on here, because the people actually in the know and not in a frat of 6 old ladies bitching about the latest plot twist on The Office have said on more than one occasion "great work on this". Once again though, Joe, I appreciate every single ounce of advice you can give me, being the great blogger that you are. Stick with what you know, like saving the earth,universal health care, and OPS.

Go ahead and be proud of the reporting you've done. The fact of the matter is that for there to be an "agreement in principle," both sides need to think there's an agreement, and the Pirates obviously did not. But if you guys have such a hard time understanding that simple concept, I can see why you can't see where you went wrong.

Then again, if you're setting your standard at "better blog than Joe's," you're never going to get anywhere. I make no pretenses about my blogs.

I'd like to think that, if you want to be taken seriously as "journalists," you wouldn't be running around the internets slamming everybody who thinks you got it wrong. There seems to be a crystal-clear opportunity to improve your game from this incident (and the Scott Darling one, too), but you guys seem to think you've learned pretty much everything that you need to learn.

On the other hand, I hear 5 mins of TMJ this morning, and I'd have to say that Shoe + Matty is probably the best configuration I've heard since the Fix died. Seriously. You're tons better than Joey P.

I think it's sad that 40 yr olds go around the internet and post phony criticism because of petty issues.

As for Pirates not thinking there was a deal, are you all still missing the part where Brian Petrovek said "I had to complete the process of negotiating to see what was available." and in the next breath said he would have been in Albany if they hadn't made a deal with the CCCC. Finding it hard to swallow smart, reasonable people continue to bury their heads in the sand about this.

I'll tell you, Joe, I don't feel anything we did was perfect, and we are a long way from being perfect. In fact I don't think any media outlet can ever claim to be perfect. I would like to have used a different headline, because for many folks, that's all they read and is all that sticks in their mind. I would have also liked to have gotten a person on the record immediately. It's not about being better than you, and I shouldn't be lashing out like a 4 year old. I appreciate the good words about my radio abilities, I really do aim to do well with that, at the very least, lol.

I wonder if it has occurred to you guys that despite some of the petty stuff, your reporting is validated by critics. Would you rather have your work go into a void and hear nothing? How would you know if anyone was paying attention?

I watched you guys start and build CMSB, and I admire your devotion, and your accomplishments. But Jeff, you especially were never shy about calling me out when I wrote something negative about the Pats, or positive about the Steelers on the old JAB site. And I saw you do the same to others about a wide range of sporting and social issues. The concept of dishing it out and taking it comes to mind.

Personally I'm tired of what I perceive to be way too much drama. I own up to my role, and I'm done. Good luck with your work.

Dave, I appreciate the fact you have been here from the beginning. The issue here to me hasn't been about dishing it out and not taking it, it was the culmination of comments made by a handful of individuals from the LLF forums on the Times-Union blog, and on this site, and in other areas that were unsolicited and unprovoked. From this point forward, the negative comments need to taken with a grain of salt, as should any positive comments. The fact is no matter what you do, there are people out there who won't like what you do or how you do it, and that's something that we here at the CMSB need to realize sooner rather than later.

Hey David, while in the past I have not been a fan of personal criticism, I have learned it comes with what I have chosen to do. As far as this go, I have no issue with fair straight up criticism, but some of the stuff that has been put out there is far from straight up criticism. That is my only real issue. Thanks for sticking around..FYI..Donnie G asked me to talk to JJ about moving to Maine..for real...holy crap!

Fair enough, Matty. I know you guys work hard, and I am actually rooting for you to succeed, Matty. It's been disappointing to see such an defensive reaction to the criticism that has been levied. As you said, nobody is perfect. It's OK to admit where things went wrong - and some things did go wrong here.

Two things to say to Jeff: 1) you know who I am, and I'm addressing you guys directly, and 2) most of your critics were not people you know.